Summary Paragraph(s) For each heading above, write a paragraph describing a key aspect of your district. Remember to begin with strong, insightful topic sentence, use quantitative evidence to support your thesis, and include comparisons when they are useful.
What should a parent do as school enrollment season begins? Experts advise parents to check the numbers. It is interesting to know that choosing public schools has become a data driven decision. Greatschools.org points out that these numbers can give parents a sense of a school, but they might not always be accurate or they might not reflect recent changes. However, they are still worth looking at. Data to look at includes attendance rates, graduation rates, the number of school suspensions, and the amount of funding provided to each student.
The attendance rate for the district of Woonsocket is given for the 2009-2010 academic year and this data was gathered using infoworks[1]. Student Attendance Rate is calculated by the total number of days students were in attendance during the 2009-2010 school year divided by the total number of days students were expected to be during the academic year. The district of Woonsocket has a 90% attendance rate for all schools. Woonsocket does meet the state attendance rate target, which is 90%. However, Woonsocket’s attendance rate is lower than the state average attendance rate of 93%. Compared to the state average attendance rate, elementary and middle schools fared well. Unfortunately, it is not the case with high school attendance rate, which is 86%, compared to 91% the state attendance rate. The districts chronic absenteeism rate, students who miss more than 10% of instructional time, 32%, is double to the state average of 16%. Do school facilities have any impact on the attendance rates? According to McGowen’s research, attendance rate did not prove to be significant predictors [2]. There must be other social issue that is affecting students’ attendance. If I was a parent of a high school age child, I would not base my decision on whether my child would receive a quality education based on these numbers.
According to Alliance for Excellent Education, graduation rates are a vital indicator of whether or not the nation's public school system is doing what it is intended to do: enroll, engage, and educate youth to be productive members of society [3]. The percentage of students in Woonsocket who graduated high school after four years is 61.8% compared to the state’s graduation rate of 75.5%. The drop out rate is an alarming 23.6%, higher than the state’s rate of 13.9%. However, the percent of students who dropped out who received a GED diploma does not increase when comparing to the state, it actually is almost the same as the state’s average. That means that majority of students who dropped out gave up on the idea of obtaining a high school diploma or the equivalent. The Five year graduation rate for the district of Woonsocket is 64.2 %, still below the state’s average of 77.0%. As a former teacher, I can say that one possibility for students dropping out is the difficult transition from middle school to high school. A number of ninth graders lack the basic skills needed to succeed in high school and have a difficult time adjusting. Another reason could be the lack of support from school to help these students make a successful transition.
As a parent, this is the data I would definitely consider. This data shows a significant relationship regarding how safe the school environment is. The data also gives an indication about the school’s role in providing specialized programs to students with learning disabilities – that can be a great source of frustration and can also give an indication about the safety of the school’s neighborhood. 2598 high school students were suspended in the 2008-2009 school year. This is much higher than suspension in elementary and middle school. High school students are more comfortable expressing their opinion; this could be one reason why high school students are more likely to be suspended. They are less likely to listen to authority.
Lastly, funding data should be another key determining factor of the quality of education in such district. It all translates to resources that are provided to the schools. The district of Woonsocket spends $ 13,120 per student compared to the East Greenwich that spends $14, 086. Compared to the state’s spending average, $15,173, it fairs well. The district’s average median family income is $38, 353. The district’s total property value is $259,937.50. East Greenwich’s total property value is $1,002,895.24, that means that the district of East Greenwich is able to contribute a lot more to their schools, thus improving the educational resources provided to their students. References:
State and District Data Collection
Safe & Supportive Schools • Funding & Resources
Use the InfoWorks Live website at http://infoworks.ride.ri.gov/ to collect the necessary data to describe your school district.
Safe and Supportive Schools
For definitions, go to http://infoworks.ride.ri.gov/safe-and-supportive/definitions-and-background
Attendance
Funding and Resources
For definitions, go to http://infoworks.ride.ri.gov/funding-and-resources/definitions-and-background
http://www.ride.ri.gov/Portals/0/Uploads/Documents/UCOA/Updated-FY11-Equalized-Expenditures-Report-Less-ARRA-exp-Sorted-by-PPE.pdf
Summary Paragraph(s)
For each heading above, write a paragraph describing a key aspect of your district. Remember to begin with strong, insightful topic sentence, use quantitative evidence to support your thesis, and include comparisons when they are useful.
What should a parent do as school enrollment season begins? Experts advise parents to check the numbers. It is interesting to know that choosing public schools has become a data driven decision. Greatschools.org points out that these numbers can give parents a sense of a school, but they might not always be accurate or they might not reflect recent changes. However, they are still worth looking at. Data to look at includes attendance rates, graduation rates, the number of school suspensions, and the amount of funding provided to each student.
The attendance rate for the district of Woonsocket is given for the 2009-2010 academic year and this data was gathered using infoworks[1]. Student Attendance Rate is calculated by the total number of days students were in attendance during the 2009-2010 school year divided by the total number of days students were expected to be during the academic year. The district of Woonsocket has a 90% attendance rate for all schools. Woonsocket does meet the state attendance rate target, which is 90%. However, Woonsocket’s attendance rate is lower than the state average attendance rate of 93%. Compared to the state average attendance rate, elementary and middle schools fared well. Unfortunately, it is not the case with high school attendance rate, which is 86%, compared to 91% the state attendance rate. The districts chronic absenteeism rate, students who miss more than 10% of instructional time, 32%, is double to the state average of 16%. Do school facilities have any impact on the attendance rates? According to McGowen’s research, attendance rate did not prove to be significant predictors [2]. There must be other social issue that is affecting students’ attendance. If I was a parent of a high school age child, I would not base my decision on whether my child would receive a quality education based on these numbers.
According to Alliance for Excellent Education, graduation rates are a vital indicator of whether or not the nation's public school system is doing what it is intended to do: enroll, engage, and educate youth to be productive members of society [3]. The percentage of students in Woonsocket who graduated high school after four years is 61.8% compared to the state’s graduation rate of 75.5%. The drop out rate is an alarming 23.6%, higher than the state’s rate of 13.9%. However, the percent of students who dropped out who received a GED diploma does not increase when comparing to the state, it actually is almost the same as the state’s average. That means that majority of students who dropped out gave up on the idea of obtaining a high school diploma or the equivalent. The Five year graduation rate for the district of Woonsocket is 64.2 %, still below the state’s average of 77.0%. As a former teacher, I can say that one possibility for students dropping out is the difficult transition from middle school to high school. A number of ninth graders lack the basic skills needed to succeed in high school and have a difficult time adjusting. Another reason could be the lack of support from school to help these students make a successful transition.
As a parent, this is the data I would definitely consider. This data shows a significant relationship regarding how safe the school environment is. The data also gives an indication about the school’s role in providing specialized programs to students with learning disabilities – that can be a great source of frustration and can also give an indication about the safety of the school’s neighborhood. 2598 high school students were suspended in the 2008-2009 school year. This is much higher than suspension in elementary and middle school. High school students are more comfortable expressing their opinion; this could be one reason why high school students are more likely to be suspended. They are less likely to listen to authority.
Lastly, funding data should be another key determining factor of the quality of education in such district. It all translates to resources that are provided to the schools. The district of Woonsocket spends $ 13,120 per student compared to the East Greenwich that spends $14, 086. Compared to the state’s spending average, $15,173, it fairs well. The district’s average median family income is $38, 353. The district’s total property value is $259,937.50. East Greenwich’s total property value is $1,002,895.24, that means that the district of East Greenwich is able to contribute a lot more to their schools, thus improving the educational resources provided to their students.
References:
[1]InfoWorks: Rhode Island Education Data Reporting. 2013.
http://infoworks.ride.ri.gov
[2] McGowen, R. S. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://repository.tamu.edu/bitstream/handle/1969.1/85819/McGowen.pdf
[3] (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.all4ed.org/about_the_crisis/students/grad_rates